


going from road to road

by wanderlustlover



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Comment Fic, Community: comment_fic, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 10:13:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/584241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderlustlover/pseuds/wanderlustlover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"How long did it take you come up with anything that wasn't 'don't believe them when they come to the door'?"</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	going from road to road

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alba17](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alba17/gifts).



> **What:** Comment fic from LJ's Comment Fic community  
>  **Prompt:** Hawaii Five-0, Steve or Danny, letter of advice to his 16 year old self.  
>  **Recipient:** alba17

"-and you'll always love the ocean, that'll never fade away. In fact, it gets exponentially bigger as you get to know the rest of it everywhere else. And The Navy? It's the best decision you ever got to make. You'll never regret a second of the time spent serving your country. Maybe that there aren't two of you to do all the things you'd like to do for them. But they'll teach you amazing things, send you amazing places, and let you meet the most amazing people--" 

Steve paused in his recitation to punctuate the point with tapping Grace's nose, making her giggle, before he carried on. 

"Also. This is of the utmost importance. You can't forget it. August 12th. You're going to need to remember this date, okay? Because it's beyond important. The fate of the world rests on this. Kiss Suzy Fisher when she asks. Those braces come off in three months time, she curls her hair and, man--"

"Hey! She doesn't need to hear about that, you neanderthal," Danny shouted from across the kitchen, stopped from puttering with whatever he was on the pots and pans on his stove to yell at Steve, who didn't look up from Grace yet. 

Grace with her dark eyes, all bright and wide, even as she said with exasperated glee so like her father, "You wouldn't write that." 

"Are you saying I'd lie about something like that? You totally never saw her. All that metal." Steve was trying not to laugh as Grace did at the same time a spoon connected hard and rattling with a pot over there at the stove. Like a the rattling of a cage. When Steve added for amused, effect, "I was a fool at sixteen. Like every other guy. Which you won't be. Not being a guy, and all. You think you're ready to write yours now?"

"I think so," Grace nodded, still grinning, even when the more serious, more studious expression of considered effort toward her homework project was settling in determined. She looked at her lined paper for only a few seconds before jumping up and gathering her binder, paper and pencil in her arms. "I'm going to do it in the living room, and I can read my letter at dinner." 

"You've got about twenty minutes, Monkey," Danny slid in edge wise, sounding as proud and besotted with his daughter as he ever did. 

Which all came at some great distance as Steve stared out the window, toward the rocking, rolling waves. The ocean that hadn't change all that much from the first time he could remember seeing it as a child, to now. Framed by the trees and fencing. The endless grass, pebbly middle ground, and sandy beach, before the endless tumult of waves. Waves that came and went, without ever leaving. The most timeless, unchanged thing to touch this whole place.

"How long did it take you to come up with anything that wasn't _'don't believe them when they come to the door'_?" 

Steve'd had to look up, blinking in surprise. Maybe at the words as much as Danny suddenly being right at his side. When he'd never heard the steps of either Grace dashing off or Danny walking up. Combining in the crack fire hard response of, "That's not all that _ever_ happened. The other things were still important." 

When Danny didn't sound surprised or leave. Didn't snap back that those words sounded far more like Steve was convincing himself than making them as a point. Only wrapped a hand loose over Steve's shoulder, giving it a little shake. The other other waving a little like he was warding off the words, or attack, like it was just blown smoke, saying, "Hey, I know they were." 

He started to lift it right before Steve's hand snapped up, fingers wrapping hard around Danny's. Holding him, it, there, until Danny settled it back. Until Steve shifted and let a breath out. His head leaning back against Danny's arm, because it was a question that couldn't go down easy and Steve had spun gold right over it for Grace. At sixteen it was far easier, to throw your arms open and call it a miracle. Your mom not being dead. Everyone else being wrong.

At thirty-six, with all the survival skills you could train into a person, it was still as indefensible as it was impossible, no matter that it kept right on rolling along, being as true as the rest of your life before it.


End file.
